Daily encouragement in your Christian walk until, as the Apostle Paul writes,"Christ is formed in you" (Galatians 4:19, NIV).

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Before Dave Ramsey…

By Allen White

The rich rule over the poor, and the
borrower is slave to the lender. Proverbs 22:7

Years ago, I sat in a budgeting seminar
at a summer camp in western Kansas. The speaker gave simple, yet profound
advice. “Spend only what you have. Get out of debt and stay out of debt.” It
seemed there should really be more to it than that.

I was in college at the time and didn’t
have any debt. No credit card. No student loans. I didn’t owe any money to
anybody. I really didn’t worry about debt. I actually didn’t have any money to
worry about at the time.

In the 25 years since then, I’ve
unfortunately been enslaved to debt for the vast majority of those years. No
one forced me into it. I was a victim of my own choices, which actually makes
me the perpetrator.

Our family is in the process of digging
out and is making great progress. Much like weight loss, debt doesn’t all come
on at once, and it certainly doesn’t all come off at once either. It’s steady
plodding.

The image of being someone’s master or
slave seems far removed from where we live, but it certainly exists in this
world. Through my involvement with Water of Life, this
has become very clear.

In our work in India, Roland Bergeron,
our founder, discovered quarries mined by child slaves. The scenario went
something like this.

The mine owners would loan a couple
more money than he knew they could ever afford to repay (usually in the realm
of US$2,000-3,000). After time passed and payment wasn’t made, the mine owner
would show up and demand one of the family’s children to satisfy the debt. The
child became the slave of the lender.

Consumer debt really makes no sense. We
pay for something many times over in a period of years, when we could have just
saved up and bought it when we had the money. Or, we could have just waited for
the impulse to pass and just done without it.

Most of us can’t afford to pay cash for
a house. We’re probably not going to present an all cash offer on “Selling New
York” any time soon – though I would work with Michelle Kleier, if that ever
was the case. Enough financial dreaming.

The Bible has more to say about money
than love, faith or most other subjects. How we handle our money is a key
spiritual indicator in our lives. We can use money and serve God, or we can
serve money and become enslaved to it.

Now that I’m not a pastor at a church,
I can say exactly what I feel about money. It’s a cruel task master. God loves
us. Money demands more. God is generous. Money is stingy. We would all do
better giving our money to build God’s Kingdom and help the poor rather than
sending it all to South Dakota or Wilmington, Delaware.